


night without moonlight

by storiesfortravellers



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Moral Ambiguity, Post-Series, Redemption, Serial Killers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 14:59:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8213342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storiesfortravellers/pseuds/storiesfortravellers
Summary: Faith discovers a serial killer who only targets murderers.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for murder but also for brief mentions of sexual assault and exploitation of children (the serial killer targets murderers and people who pimp out children).
> 
> For comment-fic on lj for the prompt "women can be serial killers, too."

Faith kind of wanted to ignore it. It wasn't her problem.

But for some reason, her gut told her to follow the woman. There was something about her. She wasn't a vamp or anything like that, but she had something... monstrous about her. 

The totally, 100% human kind of monster. 

As soon as Faith saw the woman, conspicuously casual as she got into her car, a blonde middle aged woman wearing a pink shirt and designer khakis driving a Kia, Faith had just sensed something off about her. 

When Faith followed her to a darkened park and watched from behind some bushes, she saw it: the woman dragging a dead body out of her car, pulling it by the feet toward the river.

 _Guess killers recognize their own,_ Faith thought, then winced a little. 

She stepped out from behind the bushes. "Hey, are you okay?" Faith yelled then. No use being confrontational from the start.

The woman narrowed her eyes. "You were downtown today."

"Good eye." Faith was a little impressed at her observation skills. No wonder she was so good at... her activities.

"So what - you followed me here?" The woman was getting scared.

"Look, I normally like to mind my own business."

"But?" the woman asked, testy. She was getting aggressive.

Faith sighed. She stepped closer, slowly, gradually. Faith wasn't even sure why she cared enough to get involved. 

"Look, I'm sure he deserved it," Faith said. Might as well get the woman talking.

"He did! He pimped out little girls. Twelve-year-olds!"

Faith grimaced. "And he hurt someone you love?" she said, with a knowing nod.

"Does that matter?" the woman snapped at her. 

Faith looked at her discerningly. Then she took another step forward, slow, so she could get a better look at the still-open trunk of the car.

Faith whistled. 

Five large rolls of plastic sheeting. A box with over a hundred zip-ties. 10 bottles of bleach. Not what someone buys when they've killed one person and want to drop them in a river. 

"Looks like someone has a membership card at the serial killer version of CostCo," Faith noted.

"They all deserve it," the woman said, her voice now a deadly calm. She dropped the legs of the body she was dragging and took a step toward Faith.

"Are you sure?"

"I never hurt anyone who's not a killer. And I never do it without verifying. I won't ever do this to someone if I'm not sure of their guilt," the woman said. Faith could tell that she was telling the truth, could tell that she wasn't just trying to plead her case; the woman was proud of herself for sticking to such an upright code. She was _bragging._

Faith couldn't complain, though. The woman might be out of her mind, but her kills were probably cleaner than Faith's were. 

The woman stepped closer to Faith again.

"Look, I don't want to hurt you," Faith said.

"I'm sorry. But my mission - it's a calling. I can't let anything get in the way."

Faith stared, then against her will, let out half a laugh. "I'm still pretty damn sick of hearing that from people. Just FYI."

"I'm sorry it has to be this way," the woman said, then pulled a wire out of her pocket, held it like she planned to strangle Faith.

"And what happened to your rule about not hurting the innocent?" Faith said. She was perfectly calm; this woman might have a higher kill rate, but she wasn't a threat to someone with Faith's power.

The woman faltered. She paused, looked down. Then, "I just know, I have to keep doing this. It's a calling. _A calling._ " She lunged toward Faith, wire taut between her fists.

Faith dodged, disarmed her, and had her on the ground in half a second. 

The woman stared, disbelieving. Then she screamed, almost a sob. 

"You don't understand, these people, they're killers, they hurt so many people! No one will stop them, no one cares. _Someone_ has to stop them."

Faith stared down at her, inches away from her. The woman was pleading, desperate. 

The woman thought she was doing the right thing. And she was asking Faith to show mercy on her.

But four feet away was the stench of a dead body.

A dead child rapist and killer, to be precise. 

Faith had known a few men like that. Had killed a few men like that herself.

The woman started crying as Faith continued to hold her down. "You don't understand. Without me, the innocent - they have no one to protect them."

Faith stared at her, overwhelmed all of a sudden. She knew what the right thing to do was. She should deliver the woman and the dead body and the car full of murder goodies to the cops. It's what a good person would do. 

It sure as hell was what Buffy would do.

The woman kept crying, louder and louder.

Finally, Faith punched her in the face. Not hard enough to knock her out - just hard enough to shut her up.

Faith stood, then gave her a hand to help her up. The woman was looking at her like she was some kind of wild animal.

Faith rolled her eyes, already hating herself for what she was about to do. "Here's the deal. You say you have rules. No innocent people. You stick to that. I'm taking your Driver's License and I'm checking on you, whenever I feel like. If someone catches you, you leave town. No killing innocents to cover up your... 'calling.' You stick to that, or I come for you."

The woman nodded, bewildered.

Faith crossed her arms, stepped in close. "You're brave. Fast. Good in a fight. You're not scared of killers or pimps or anyone else. But look in my eyes. And tell me. Between the two of us, who's more dangerous?" Faith glared.

"You," the woman said, still catching her breath.

"Don't forget it. Follow your rules, or else."

The woman nodded.

Faith sighed, then stepped back. She turned and went to the car, grabbed the woman's purse and took out the Driver's License and held it up pointedly before putting it in her pocket. Then she headed back toward cover. She didn't need to see her dispose of the body. 

Faith tried not to think about what she'd done as she walked back toward the highway. All this time trying so hard not to be a murderer, to find a way out of her darkness, only to get her redemption fucked over by some suburban lady in a Kia.

There was a lot of blood on Faith's hands. And her chest tightened a little as she walked, realizing for what felt like the thousandth time: that shit wasn't coming off any time soon.


End file.
